Improvement in trunk-hasps



stent @Wine CORNELIUS WALSH, OE NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

Letters Patent No. 99,036, dated January 18, 1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRUNK-HASPS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making paxt of the name.

l, CORNELIUS WALSH, of Newark, in the county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improved Trunk-Hasp; and do hereby describe the same. Y

.Natte/re and Objects of the Invention.

The subject of my invention is a trunk-hasp, hav ing a spring to throw and hold the staple clear of the lock when released.

The hasp is composed of cast or rigid parts, and a suitably-bent spring connecting them, the spring beingsecured incavities, in the respective parts, through the medium of plates serving as nuts or washers for the General Description..

I construct the parts or members A B, of the hasp, of, any preferred external form, providing the upper, A, with suitable means, a, for attachment to the lid of the trunk, and the lower, B, with a staple, b, as usual.

To connect them, I provide the lower, or movable part B, with a transverse semi-cylindrical projection, b', and the upper, A, with a corresponding socket, a', which may be situated some distance above its lower edge, as shown; a recess, af, extending therefrom, in which a corresponding portion of the lower part B tting when depressed, it may thus be supported laterally.

They are further respectively provided with sockets or depressions a'" b", open toward their inner or hingeedges, and of suitable form, in which issecured, by plates c and rivets c', or their equivalent, aspring, O, so curved as to have a tendency to hold the lower or movable pai-tin an elevated position, so as to clear the face of the trunk, as represented, and which, besides, connects the two parts.

Suitably-elongated holes c, for the reception of the attaching-rivets c', will allow the slight endwise movement of the spring incident to its being straightened when the staple is forced into the lock.

The spring G may be made of sheet-steel or other suliciently strong and elastic material. Itv is preferably arranged about half way between the under and outer surfaces, to reduce the circle described by the lower or movable part. The eeet of this is the facilitation of the appliance of the spring, and a considerable lessening of the strain on it.

Any suitable equivalent of the joint a 'b' may be employed.

It will be observed that in my hasp, while the spring forms essentially the connection of the two parts, itis subjected to no more strain than were it not so employed, the joint a" b a supporting tbe parts, both against longitudinal and lateral separation.-

A thinner and more sensitive spring is thus adapted to be employed, and the haspis further rendered much stronger than it could otherwise be made, as, withoutv herein set forth.

CORNELIUS WALSH.-

XVitnesses THoMA's NUGENT, JAMns H. WILLIAMS. 

